In conventional wireless communication networks, it is unnecessary to provide exclusivity or deny selected mobile phones access to services from any specific (designated) base stations within carrier owned or roaming enabled networks. This is because the base station is typically owned by the carrier and designed to serve all authorized (registered) mobile phones within the base station cell area. However, once a carrier introduces privately owned base stations into a network, exclusivity may be required. Personal or Private Base Station (PBS) owners providing carrier services may be concerned that their limited base station bandwidth capacity is inadequate to meet the communication needs of all mobile users within their Private Base Station cell area. PBS owners may want to restrict the use of their Private Base Station(s) to selected mobile subscribers of their choice within the confines of specific areas, such as their own homes or businesses. Therefore, the concept of exclusivity represents a heretofore unaddressed need in the wireless communications industry.
A mobile phone, when switched on or changing locations may either be granted or denied service by the carrier network. The carrier may deny service to the mobile phone for various reasons, such as late subscription payment, lack of roaming privileges, and numerous other reasons. The elements employed within a conventional telecom wireless network architecture serving many mobile phones is illustrated in FIG. 1, and the conventional service permission/denial procedure is described below.
A mobile phone [1], when switched on or changing locations, initiates a location update procedure to find a control channel within a (previous or new) cell location that it is allowed to monitor (camp on). The mobile [1] begins the procedure by sending a Location Updating Request (LUR) to the Base Station (BS) [2], which is then forwarded to the Base Station Controller (BSC) [3]. The BSC then sends the LUR to the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) [4]. The MSC [4] checks the status and privileges with the Home Location Register (HLR) [5]. If the mobile [1] is authorized to operate in this cell, the HLR [5] initiates a positive Acknowledgement message (ACK-message), which is sent to the mobile [1], allowing the mobile [1] to camp on the local BS [2] cell and receive services. In case the HLR [5] refuses mobile service in this cell, it will generate a Negative Acknowledgement (NACK-message). Depending on the reason for the NACK-message, the mobile [1] still remains camped on this BS [2] cell, but will either: a) refuse to generate a service request for E911 or b) try to find another BS [2] cell were it does receive a positive Acknowledgement message.
In contrast to the conventional base station serving many users, commonly-owned and co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/280,733, which is incorporated by reference, proposes to use a personal or Private Base Station (PBS) at home or in an office to serve a limited numbered of registered wireless phone users. The subject matter of application Ser. No. 10/280,733 is published in corresponding International Publication No. WO 2004/040938.
The PBS, unlike the conventional base station, is assigned specifically to and/or owned by an individual or organization. The PBS is placed in a location of the owner's choice, such as their home, office, campus, apartment, or airport. It is connected to the Internet through a broadband connection. For reasons of privacy or bandwidth capacity, owners may want to restrict the use of their Private Base Station(s) to selected mobile subscribers of their choice. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a system, apparatus, and method that provides the ability to grant or deny selected mobile phones access to services from a specific (designated) base station. The present invention provides a mechanism to provide such Private Base Station Exclusivity.